Women in Barbados may be more educated than their male peers but they’re still concentrated in lower-paying jobs, earning as much as 25 per cent less, according to a new study by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
The research has also found that the men who are making the big dollars are employers, while the highest earning women are actually Government workers.
The findings are contained in the New Century, Old Disparities: Gender And Ethnic Earnings Gaps In Latin America And The Caribbean 2012 released last week, which surveyed gender and ethnic wage gaps in 18 countries and found that although the wage gap has been decreasing in recent years, the pace is still slow.
Comparison of earnings for men and women with the same age and education in Barbados revealed that men earn 25 per cent more than women, compared to an average 17 per cent at the wider Latin America and the Caribbean level.
“Women’s educational achievement surpasses that of men: 27.8 per cent of women and 22.6 per cent of men completed university. However, at every level of education, men earn more than women. Average earnings for women with no primary or secondary education are statistically similar; earnings for women increase markedly only for women with university education,” wrote lead research economist in education at IDB, Hugo Ñopo, who authored the report. (DP)

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